The invention relates to a bearing support for an antifriction bearing, with the antifriction bearing ring cast in place within the support.
Federal Republic of Germany application No. OS 24 49 455 discloses a pedestal or flange bearing housing having an incorporated self-aligning roller bearing outer ring. The outer rings are introduced into the casting molds, and casting is effected around the rings.
Pedestal and flange bearings are generally installed in agricultural machines and in systems which do not have to satisfy very high precision requirements. Therefore, self-aligning roller bearings, which permit compensation for errors in alignment, are also used.
With tapered roller bearings, such as those used, for example, in motor-vehicle transmissions, high precision is demanded for the bearing support into which the rings are installed. Therefore, the bearing seating places are first ground and the rings are then pressed into position. This is expensive and requires special self-aligning rings. (See, for example, Federal Republic of Germany application No. OS 36 42 463.) In addition, there is a problem with a fixed bearing seat under different temperatures and there is a danger of the deformation of the antifriction bearing rings.
Upon the casting of hot metal around antifriction bearings (as in Federal Republic of Germany Pat. No. 33 33 506), in addition to the requirement that the hardened antifriction bearing rings not experience any change in their hardness, there is a problem that the antifriction bearing rings which are inserted into the die casting mold are exposed to the mold closing force. In order to prevent ring deformation by the mold closing force, particularly in the case of bearing rings of asymmetrical partial cross-section (e.g. tapered roller bearings), narrow width tolerances of the rings are necessary, since the high mold closing forces act asymmetrically on the ring and tend to turn it around its center of gravity. In addition, these deformations are increased by the casting around them and the subsequent cooling and shrinking of the bearing support and are so to say, frozen in place.